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Salzburg 2014 is athletes' choice says chairman
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-03 10:30
Salzburg's long tradition of hosting winter sports events made it the athletes' choice for the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Austrian city said on Monday.
Salzburg has seven of the eleven sport venues in place unlike competing cities Pyeongchang in South Korea and Russia's Black Sea resort town of Sochi that would have to build many of the venues from scratch.
"We have had sporting events for the last five decades in Austria so the venues have naturally grown," said Franz Klammer, chairman of the city's Olympic bid.
"That's why we don't need that much investment," said Klammer, an Alpine skiing Olympic and world champion in the mid-1970s who also won the World Cup downhill title five times.
At a presentation in Guatemala City just two days before the International Olympic Committee picks the 2014 host, Austria brought out a panel of winter sports champions to promote the city's bid.
"It takes a while to know how to prepare slopes, it is a science," said snowboarding Olympic medallist Manuela Riegler. "In places where there is no experience it is very hard for us. It is no fun."
She also praised the nightlife in the Austrian city and the conveniently located athletes' residences, about 12 minutes away from where events will be held.
Salzburg will spend around $500 million to build new speed skating, figure skating and hockey rinks and to revamp the existing ski slopes and bobsled tracks, Klammer said.
In 1964 and 1976 the Austrian city of Innsbruck held the Winter Games.
That history means Austria has the largest base of knowledgeable fans, said Klammer.
The country of eight million people also prides itself in having sold 10 million tickets for winter sports events over the last 20 years.
Danja Haslacher, Austrian downhill ski champion who won two gold medals at the 1998 Nagano Paralympics, said Salzburg made a special effort to consider the needs of disabled athletes.
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